Human computer interaction (HCl), or generally human machine interaction, focuses on design and use of computer technology as well as interfaces between users and computers. HCl depends on responsive, intuitive and accurate measurements of human input actions. Mouse, keyboard and touch screen are conventional input devices that require user's hands-on controls. Some input devices like Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion Controller are capable of tracking the user's body and/or hand gestures without any physical contact.
The recent progress in virtual reality (VR) brought goggles like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive to consumer market. VR goggles can create immersive 3 dimensional (3D) experiences to a user. The user can look around in virtual world by a turn of the head just like looking around in the real world.
Augmented reality (AR) is another area that is progressing fast. One major difference between AR and VR is that AR operates in real-time on real world scenes as opposed to solely computer created or recorded scenes in VR. In both VR and AR, it will be very useful for the system to know where the user is looking at and what actions the user wants to take on the intended targets. Effective and reliable Head and eye tracking will enable a broad range of applications under such circumstances.
Self-driving vehicles are also taking the front stage nowadays. There are situations where a car in its autonomous mode might need a driver's attention due to updated road/traffic conditions or driving mode changes etc. As such, it is important to constantly monitor where the driver is looking at.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) may work in a cycle of learning, modeling and predicting. A quick and intuitive way to track and confirm the user's attention point for data acquisition and confirmation can play an important role in this loop.
Existing head and eye tracking systems include a very complicated structure that incurs a high cost, and require a user to perform many actions during calibrations and operations.
Therefore, there is a need for a head and eye motion and gesture tracking system and a set of workflows for calibrations and operations without the above mentioned drawbacks.